Is it possible to remove or override a users ID of my observation when I know that it is incorrect yet I’m still not confident enough to positively identify the species myself?
These are my recent observations that have been identified as rats by someone, yet, at least according to two professional pest control workers who I showed the photos to in person, are definitely mice. Apologies in advance as I’m sure this topic has been addressed many times before. I tried to find a previous thread but couldn’t!
Also, I’m still new to this community so I appreciate any and all advice/tips or help! Thanks!
[just noting first up that I removed the links to the observations due to the somewhat negative context (i.e., a perceived ID error by another user)]
if you wish to ‘override’ that user’s ID on an observation, you can opt out of community ID. This can be done by clicking the ‘reject’ option on the right hand side of the observation under the map:
once you click that, and confirm yes in the pop-up, the ID of the observation will revert to your current ID
I will just also note as an aside that, at least from my experience with pest control agencies and employees in Australia, they’re notoriously bad at species identification, and I would take their IDs with a grain of salt
Another way to handle this type of situation is to solicit input from other users/identifiers. You can look for users that regularly ID the type of organism concerned (maybe rodents in this case), and politely mention them using an “@” in a comment and ask for their input. If it’s only on a few observations, you won’t be bothering those IDers. Then, if you get IDs agreeing with the first IDer, you’ll feel more confident that they aren’t wrong. OR those other IDers may contradict the first. With enough IDs, an incorrect ID will be outweighed. Or someone with a wrong ID might withdraw or change it if other users can convince them of a different ID.
Thank you both SO much for your thoughtful responses and advice! This community has been so incredibly supportive!
Thank you @thebeachcomber for removing my links. My intention is never to offend anyone and I’m deeply sorry if I have!
The only reason I asked about ‘overriding’ an ID is because I don’t want any of my observations that myself or another user have misidentified to contribute to any false scientific data and such. I’ll leave the identifications as they are for now since I can’t personally confirm an ID. Hopefully someone else can!
